KUALA LUMPUR – The Road to Gold (RTG) programme committee has appointed Stuart Ramalingam and Michelle Chai as coordinators to help the committee identify the needs of athletes for their preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Olympic Council of Malaysia president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria said the appointments of the Malaysian Football League and the Akademi Badminton Malaysia chief executive officers are also to ensure the athletes meet the criteria for the Olympic qualifiers and at the same time become medal prospects in Paris next year.
“They will be looking at ways to assist athletes in the podium programme in their pathway to the Olympics and become medal prospects.
“They will also help those athletes to fast-track their qualification process,” he said.
Norza explained that the evaluation will be based on two factors.
The first is to consider medal-winning athletes from previous Olympics such as track cyclist Datuk Azizulhasni Awang, badminton men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, and diving queen Datuk Pandelela Rinong Pamg, while the second is athletes in the top 10 world ranking.
“The RTG secretariat and coordinators would need to identify the medal prospect athletes before they submit the shortlisted names to the higher committee for review and approval. Only then will we announce the list of athletes to the Olympics.
“We will also conduct very detailed profiling of the shortlisted athletes in terms of their sports science or tournament needs.
“All these are necessary to fast-track their qualification so they could start their training immediately,” he told reporters at the cheque handing-over ceremony by Matrix Concepts Holdings Bhd to professional women’s singles player S. Kisona at the Akademi Badminton Malaysia, here today.
Meanwhile, Norza noted that one of the ways to help medal prospect athletes is to pay a visit to the Nippon Sports Science University in Japan – expected to take place in April.
“The institution has produced over 40 Olympic gold medallists. As such, we wish to pay a visit and learn their way of operation.
“As we have slightly about one and a half years to go, we want to see what are the things we are lacking in preparing our athletes,” he added. – The Vibes, March 13, 2023
